Henry Loomis, broadcaster

November 16, 2008|By William Grimes The New York Times

Henry Loomis, 89, who extended the reach and defended the independence of the Voice of America as its director in the late 1950s and early 1960s before resigning in a clash with President Lyndon B. Johnson, died Nov. 2 in Jacksonville, where he lived.

The cause was complications of Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Pick's diseases, said his wife, Jacqueline.

Mr. Loomis was also president of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in the 1970s.

A physicist by training, Mr. Loomis became director of the Voice of America in 1958, under President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

In 1965 the Voice of America came under increasing pressure from the White House not to report awkward foreign policy news, notably the growing U.S. military involvement in Southeast Asia. Mr. Loomis resigned, saying accusatorily, "The Voice of America is not the voice of the administration."